The MRC vs. The DNC
The Media Research Center whined that non-right-wing media didn't hate the Democratic National Convention -- then suffered a severe outbreak of Obama Derangement Syndrome.
Just as it repeatedly ranted that non-right-wing coverage of the Republican National Convention didn’t sound like Fox News, the Media Research Center similarly whined about coverage of the Democratic National Convention. Justine Brooke Murray kicked things off by rooting for DNC protester chaos: “The Democrat [sic] National Convention hadn’t even kicked off yet, before attendees were greeted by a mass mob of screaming hamassholes.” Nicholas Fondacaro hatefully wrote:
With President Joe Biden set to speak during Night One of the Democratic National Convention on Monday – to quickly get out the way of Vice President Kamala Harris – some of the folks at CNN were preparing people for some major waterworks. Throughout the day, far-left CNN commentators Van Jones and Bakari Sellers predicted everyone in the arena (including babies) would be left crying for the supposed beauty of Biden stepping aside (when he was really thrown out by an inter-party coup).
During the afternoon’s CNN News Central, Jones gushed about what Biden was going to do during his speech. “And tonight, Biden comes out and he’s going to do one of the most beautiful acts of political leadership; to step back so somebody else can step forward. That very rarely happens,” he touted.
He then predicted they were going to need boxes of Kleenex tissues set up around the arena because so many people would be bawling their eyes out:
[…]
He then clownishly predicted: “There are going to be people crying, there are going to be babies yelling for Joe Biden. He is going to get all of those applause and he deserves every ounce of it.”
“Joe Biden has the character, whether or not you’re Democrat or Republican that this country needs you want to lead it,” he added. “And it will be a clear contrast between the man who served this country admirably for 50 years, 60 years, and Donald Trump.”
It’s hard to believe there will be babies there given how much the Democratic Party worships abortion and have enshrined it in their platform.
Jorge Bonilla took a similar tack, whining: “consider the gross hagiography of it all. The Regime Media have been out in force for the past month, manufacturing consent for this candidacy and for the manner in which it was foisted upon the American people.” He returned to baselessly whine that CNN factchecker Daniel Dale was only “reluctantly” fact-checking Biden’s speech:
Once again, CNN summoned Daniel Dale for a fact-check of a presidential speech. And, once again, Dale showed his reluctance to fact-check Joe Biden- choosing to check economic data instead of some of the incendiary and easily refutable hoaxes amplified during his DNC swan song.
[…]
This fact-check was tonally very deferential to Biden. Compare that with his fact-check of Donald Trump at the RNC, whose claims he dismissed as “nonsense”.
Dale’s biggest omissions here are the most egregious: by checking Biden on tax and economic data, he allows him to skate on both the “Very Fine People Hoax” and the “Bloodbath Hoax”, both of which have been very thoroughly debunked.
Actually, neither of those have been “very thoroughly debunked.”
On Aug. 20, the MRC had a daylong meltdown over the others refusing to viciously hate the DNC like it does:
PBS Launched DNC Coverage: ‘Enthusiasm… Joy and Excitement’ in Chicago
New Talking Points Dropped: Reporters Salivate over ‘Electric,’ ‘Electrifying’ DNC (as if the MRC wasn’t spouting the anti-DNC talking points it was ordered to spew)
PBS’s Laura Barron-Lopez Eats Up ‘Kamala Cake’ and DNC’s ‘Palpable Excitement’
ABC’s Bruce, Stephanopoulos Give Off North Korean News Lady Vibes in DNC Coverage (how is that different from Curtis Houck’s slavish recitation of his assigned narrative?)
CBS’s Dokoupil Grills DNC Chair on Kamala Hiding From Press, Night One Ending Late
Boring IS Propaganda: CBS, NBC Spoonfeed Lame DNC Recaps to Make It Seem Hunky-Dory(the RNC was pretty boring, but we don’t recall Houck calling it “propaganda”)
CNN’s Chris Wallace Boasts Kamala Is Having ‘Love Affair’ With Voters
ABC, CBS Drool Over Obama DNC Speeches, Rekindled Hopenchange
Meanwhile, Nicholas Fondacaro was excessively triggered by the DNC’s state roll call for committing the offense of being fun by having a DJ play themed songs for each state, the pinnacle of which was Lil Jon representing Georgia by belting out “Turn Down For What.” Fondacaro sneered that this was all “FAKE”:
Downplaying the backroom deals that had Democratic Party delegates pledge themselves to Vice President Kamala Harris as the nominee long before the Democratic Nation Convention’s Night Two proceedings, CNN anchors Jake Tapper (a former party operative turned “journalist”), Dana Bash, and Abby Phillip cheered on the fake and theatrical roll call vote that took place in prime time Tuesday night.
“The Democrats are doing a very good job of exciting the crowd here,” Tapper boasted.
Adding, “Normally roll calls are pretty boring and awful and that one, especially with some cameos from John Ashton and Eva Longoria, and Lil Jon, of course not to mention all, of course, all of the governors and mayors, really had the crowd on their feet.”
Bash proclaimed the Democrats were “a party that wants to party” and there’s “no question” about that.
What, exactly, was “fake”? Fondcaro never explained.
It somehow required a second post for Fondacaro to fully hate on it:
The broadcast networks of ABC, CBS, and NBC wear vibing during Night Two of the Democratic National Convention on Tuesday, letting themselves be swept up in the “ecstasy” of the “dance party” that occurred during the fake roll call vote to nominate Vice President Kamala Harris. They let their façade of objectivity slip as they lost themselves in the nirvana of being surrounded by people who they agreed with politically.
ABC senior national correspondent Terry Moran was the worst. Seemingly caught off guard by anchor David Muir throwing to him for analysis, Moran couldn’t find the words as he stammered for a moment before blurting out his admiration for “Just the ecstasy that just happened.”
Moran proceeded to joyfully recall the Democratic roll call of state delegates, calling it “the best party” he’s been to in “awhile”:
[…]
Just before Moran had to be yanked out of his stupor, ABC senior congressional correspondent Rachel Scott the roll call as “really a dance party!”
“I can tell you. Lil Jon made his way down this aisle not too long before we came on the air, David! It turned into quite the dance party here on the convention floor,” she boasted.
Again, he called the roll call “fake” without explaining what was supposedly fake about it. It appears he’s mostly jealous that the RNC was nowhere near as fun.
Obama Derangement Syndrome
The Media Research Center spent the first couple of nights of the Democratic National Convention whining about how it was pointed out that the DNC was a lot more fun than the Republican National Convention. The MRC also had a meltdown over Barack and Michelle Obama speaking at the DNC. Bonilla launched a personal attack on a reporter by pretending to read her mind:
As we indicated earlier, the unofficial theme of Night 2 of the 2024 Democratic National Convention was the transfer of the mantle of Hope and Change on to Kamala Harris, with the Obamas personally conducting the transfer. Night 2’s subtheme is the manner in which the Regime Media fell over themselves in pining for that Obama Restoration.
Consider ABC’s Mary Bruce, for example. Known for her sycophantic coverage of the Biden White House as ABC’s Chief White House Correspondent. Watch as Bruce absolutely fawns over the Obamas’ convention speeches:
[…]
If you look closely enough, you can see Bruce struggling to maintain that fine line between “analysis” and opinion, almost forcing herself to drop some variant of “the Obamas said” in between her hot takes. This was Mary Bruce at her Mary Bruciest, and that’s saying a lot. ABC World News Tonight anchor David Muir reinforcing Michelle Obama’s call to action, in a manner reminiscent of his pre and post-framing of every political story wherein he delivers a brief before and after whatever the correspondent puts out.
In another post, Bonilla whined that “The Regime sycophants at MSNBC, consumed by their collective desire to imprint the Harris candidacy into the American psyche, have now proclaimed Harris to be ‘the future’,” adding” “This stuff is the coverage equivalent of the creepy Shepard Fairey poster. Everything is a contrived callback to “Hope and Change”.
Bonilla was still at it in yet another post, whining that CNN’s John King accurately pointed out that Obama didn’t start any “big wars” during his presidency:
What is King even talking about here? No major wars? Did Osama bin Laden shoot himself in the face? Did the drones just launch themselves? In order to re-elevate Obama to secular godhood, King is compelled to make stuff up. Active disinformation in furtherance of a political narrative.
King speaks here as if the American people themselves did not move on from Obama’s divisive politics (despite Obama’s personal popularity), and as if they forgot his original authoritarianism (siccing the IRS on Tea Party-adjacent groups, suing The Little Sisters of the Poor, prosecuting journalists).
Bonilla seems to have forgotten that the killing of bin Laden effectively ended a war, not started one. And as we’ve pointed out, the Obama administration did not sue the Little Sisters of the Poor, and in fact, had nothing to do with that litigation — in 2017, then-California attorney general Xavier Becerra sued the Trump administration in 2017 over broadening exemptions to contraceptive coverage under the Affordable Care Act, and the Little Sisters of the Poor later filed to intervene and chose to become a party to the suit.
Right-wing team player Curtis Houck freaked out:
ABC’s Good Morning America has always been a team player for the left, so that meant on Wednesday they had to have on-air Obamagasams to get their points across about how Barack and Michelle Obama were an “electrifying” and “forceful one-two punch” with “political and personal” speeches “pummeling Donald Trump in blistering terms..as dangerous, divisive, and petty” on a night that felt “genuinely new”.
Co-host and former Clinton official George Stephanopoulos salivated right off the top, remarking to co-host Robin Roberts: “What a rocking night at the Democratic National Convention.”
Chief White House correspondent Mary Bruce was predictably ready to run through a brick wall for her fellow Democrats.
[…]
She also saved some valentines for Michelle, gushing of her “rare return to the political center stage” and “contrasting the candidates in stark terms…saying they know what it’s like to be on the receiving end of Trump’s attack” and “argu[ed] Kamala understands average Americans the way Trump never will”.
Notice how deep cuts by Democrats are treated in the press as positives or factual statements while any sniff of mere basic criticism from Republicans are seen as personal attacks.
Houck cited no example of inaccurate “deep cuts” against Republicans or any personal attack against a Democrat that was merely a “basic criticism.”
Alex Christy served up his own glass of whine:
MSNBC chief political analyst Chuck Todd twisted himself into a pretzel on Wednesday’s Jose Diaz-Balart Reports as he recapped former First Lady Michelle Obama’s Tuesday address to the Democratic National Convention. Todd argued that every four years, Obama reminds the country “she’s probably the best nonpolitical speaker in the country.” That those reminders always line up with the political calendar appeared to go right over his head.
Co-host Ana Cabrera led Todd with a clip of Obama declaring that “We cannot get a goldilocks complex about whether everything is just right, and we cannot indulge our anxieties about whether this country will elect someone like Kamala instead of doing everything we can to get someone like Kamala elected.”
Houck’s freakout over the Obamas continued:
With co-host, Democratic donor, and Obama family friend Gayle King helming CBS Mornings, Wednesday’s show was packed to the brim with adulation among King and a host of pals for the “virtuoso performance” by Barack and Michelle Obama at the Democratic National Convention Tuesday in what they insisted will be remembered as not only an “energetic” and “phenomenal” “one-two punch”, but a “cultural moment”.
King got things started in the “Eye Opener”: “The crowd roars for both of the Obamas as they make the case for Kamala Harris and against Donald Trump.”
[…]
Fast-forwarding to the top of the second hour (and past another classic Dokoupil man-on-the-street piece), King had more fawning praise for the “very energetic day at the DNC in Chicago, former First Lady Michelle Obama,” who “was greeted like a rock star, and rock star is the word before she even opened her mouth and made the case for Vice President Kamala Harris”.
“You know who else had a great night, I thought, was the Second Gentleman, Doug Emhoff, which ordinarily we’d be talking a lot about because I thought he was also knockout, but the Obamas were so strong. Michelle Obama in particular, it’s hard to not speak about her performance last night,” she added.
Houck also served up yet another complaint that the DNC was too much fun:
Co-host Tony Dokoupil agreed “it really was a party” and gushed “[t]he roar of the crowd may still be echoing off the walls here at the United Center” from “that huge speech from Barack Obama, but yes, maybe even a bigger one from former First Lady Michelle Obama”.
Adding “there were just so many quotable moments” ripping Trump, Dokoupil boasted Barack “blend[ed] nostalgia with inspiration” and gently ribbed him for making a veiled reference to Trump’s manhood.
Clay Waters grumbled about Obama (well, that others don’t reflexively hate the guy as much as he does) as well:
The “excitement” began right from the introduction of PBS’s coverage of Night Two of the Democratic National Convention from Chicago, which featured consecutive speeches by Michelle and Barack Obama.
Co-anchor Geoff Bennett set up this T-ball of a question: “And former president Barack Obama speaks to the city that helped launch his political career.”
Next, in a staged soundbite, someone off-screen (a PBS producer?) shouted to a row of seated delegates, “Who are you guys excited to see tonight?” They answered in unison, “Obama!”
Tim Graham made his own contribution to the whinefest in his Aug. 21 podcast:
Through two days of the Democrat [sic] convention, we’re buried in praise of the “electricity” and the “energy,” and that was before the Obamas magically ascended to the stage. Every four years, we’re reminded of the term “Obamagasm.” From inside their Obama bubble, do they really get to say Trump has a “cult”?
Of course the Trump cultists at the MRC deny they’re in a cult.
Christy, also the MRC resident comedy cop, took umbrage at people finding an Obama joke funny:
NBC’s Seth Meyers reacted on Wednesday’s edition of Late Night to former President Barack Obama’s speech to the Democratic National Convention by claiming that “the best Obama is stand-up Obama” as he reveled in Obama’s jab at Donald Trump’s crowd sizes, which was a euphemism for saying Trump is “bad at sex.”
Following discussion of Michelle Obama, Meyers introduced a clip of Barack Obama by being thankful that, “In addition to calling Trump dangerous and weird, Democrats are also treating him like the whiny little loser he is, and then it was her husband’s turn to somehow follow that. And he got everyone talking when he took a jab at the size of Trump’s crowds.”
In the clip, Obama declared, “Here’s a 78-year-old billionaire who has not stopped whining about his problems since he rode down his golden escalator nine years ago. It has been a constant stream of gripes and grievances that’s actually been getting worse now that he’s afraid of losing to Kamala. There’s the childish nicknames, the crazy conspiracy theories, this weird obsession with crowd sizes.”
Meyers loved it, “I mean, he did it—he did it without even saying a word. Just a tiny hand gesture. I’ve said it for years, and I’ll say it again, the best Obama is stand-up Obama.”
He disapprovingly summarized the other late-night shows weighing in on the humor: “In other late night Obama-Trump news, Meyers’s fellow NBC-er, The Tonight Show’s Jimmy Fallon used the opportunity to make word-related jokes with politicians such as Mike, Ron, and Hank Johnson. Meanwhile, The Daily Show was torn between appreciating Obama’s anti-Trump jokes and admitting that it undermines Democrats’ claims that they are the more mature, adult-like party.” Despite being America’s comedy cop, Christy didn’t explain why weren’t supposed to find Obama funny.
The MRC has been suffering outbreaks of Obama Derangement Syndrome for years, which have continued well after he left the presidency.
Not hating Walz and Harris
The meltdown over the DNC continued with an Aug. 22 post by Houck raging that nice things were said about Tim Walz:
On Thursday, the nervous sweat had yet to wear off on ABC’s Good Morning America from their weak knees and clammy palms from their Tuesday and Wednesday shows recapping the Democratic National Convention.
This time, the played the role of Russia Today anchors promoting their party’s vice presidential candidate Tim Walz as a scandal-free “[s]ocial studies teacher, retired National Guard member, high school football coach” who “electrified this arena…with a pep talk for the nation” calling on those listening “to give it their all” to save the country from the GOP.
[…]
Co-host and former Clinton official George Stephanopoulos got things going in the opening tease: “Governor Walz takes the stage at the Democratic Convention…Social studies teacher, retired National Guard member, high school football coach…with his wife and children cheering him on. Former President Bill Clinton and TV legend Oprah Winfrey takes the stage, too.”
Chief pom-pom waver Mary Bruce was bursting at the seams in excitement in her lead-off report, insisting the man who’s lied about his children being conceived using IVF and his military service to name a few came with “straight talk” to give “a heartfelt pitch”:
Houck is so desperate to smear non-right-wing media as biased, deliberately ignoring the wild right-wing bias of Fox News.
Houck whined some more:
NBC’s Today came out firing Thursday thoroughly pleased with how their friends at the Democratic National Convention programmed the night prior, deeming it an “unforgettable” and “supercharged” night “heavy on star power” with vice presidential nominee Tim Walz giving off “Midwest dad energy” hounded by Republicans and Oprah Winfrey “expand[ing] the tent” for Democrats.
“Tim Walz introduces himself to the nation with a high-stakes speech, stressing his small-town roots and personal story…while his party rolls out a lineup of stars and politics, Hollywood and music, to make the case for Kamala Harris,” co-host Hoda Kotb proclaimed in a tease.
[…]
Amid soundbites of Walz’s speech, Alexander rhetorically fluffed Walz’s pillows like someone working at a five-star hotel: “Walz introducing himself to America, emphasizing his heartland roots…and how his years as a schoolteacher informed his political career…while going after the Trump/Vance agenda…and contrasting the party’s definitions of freedom.”
[…]
This nonsense including fawned over Walz as the “[f]ormer schoolteacher and football coach cheered on by his family, including his emotional son, Gus” with a lead-in “heavy on star power” and “talk show giant Oprah Winfrey” calling Harris “a trailblazer”.
Waters joined the freakout:
On Night Two of the Democratic National Convention, anchor Amna Nawaz was talking to former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi in the PBS booth when they were joined by veteran PBS journalist Judy Woodruff.
Nawaz took advantage by tossing aside her journalist hat and hosting a heartfelt feminist kaffeeklatsch hailing VP Kamala Harris, the Democratic presidential candidate, as a feminist hero on “the cusp” of a historic feat, becoming the first female president, the way Hillary Clinton was supposed to have been in 2016.
[…]
As Night Two signed off, Jonathan Capehart got emotional over Michelle Obama’s angry speech. After Capehart said when he was first called upon, “Can I go last?” anchor Geoff Bennett came back to him a few minutes later and Capehart opened his heart, after universal praise from panelists Amy Walter, Judy Woodruff, and David Brooks on Michelle Obama’s speech.
Houck then spent an entire post grousing that “Thursday’s CBS Mornings spent nearly its entire two hours of run time (with commercials) celebrating the previous day’s proceedings at the Democratic National Convention as if they have a personal stake in ensuring Vice President Kamala Harris and Governor Tim Walz (D-MN) win in November,” needlessly featuring “an Notable Quotables-style package of the dumbest moments, presented in chronological order.”
Fondacaro returned to grumble about Harris’ upcoming speech:
With MSNBC finally attending a party convention this cycle (they refused to do their show live from the Republican National Convention), host Ari Melber kicked off the fourth and final night of the Democratic National Convention by giving his hopeful requests for what Vice President Kamala Harris was going to address in her speech. He was apparently itching for her the attack the “phonies” and “fakes” in the MAGA crowd who claim they represent “real America.”
He obnoxiously began with a spoken-word rendition of Jay Z’s Public Service Announcement and explaining what he meant by “shoot at you actors” (a questionable decision given the recent assassination attempt on former President Trump, which MSNBC had questioned the legitimacy of and Melber called a “spectacle”):
[…]
Co-host Joy Reid was looking forward to the partying of Harris’s sorority sisters. Meanwhile, Alex Wagner suggested she was feeling the same excitement reminiscent of “the run up to Christmas.”
After Harris’ speech, Bonilla raged: “The 2024 Democratic National Convention is, in part, the physical manifestation of the transition of the Regime from its former figurehead, President Joe Biden, to its new figurehead Vice President Kamala Harris. The most pro-Regime media outlet has also now fully transitioned to Harris.” As if Bonilla and his MRC co-workers aren’t desperate to become Regime Media themselves by helping to get Trump elected.
Mark Finkelstein got bizarrely angry that nice things were said about Walz’s son:
At least seven times today in the show’s opening minutes, CNN This Morning ran the clip from last night’s DNC of Tim Walz’s son Gus getting emotional and pointing to his father as he spoke: “That’s my dad!”
The panel collectively teared up, with Mark McKinnon saying “Do you have any tissues?” McKinnon also swooned over Walz’s speech, declaring, “I’m telling you, in all my experience, I have never seen anything as authentic as that speech.”
Biden’s former comms director Kate Bedingfield chimed in, saying “if you aren’t moved by that, I don’t know. You got a heart of stone.” Bedingfield also referred to Gus’s emotion for his father as “winning.” Whether she meant that in political terms, or in the sense of winning as a family matter, wasn’t clear.
The emotion for his father displayed by Gus Walz, who as Hunt mentioned has dealt with disabilities and autism, was clearly moving. But that CNN was trying to extract from it the maximum political benefit for Harris-Walz was equally obvious.
It’s sad that Finkelstein couldn’t restrain himself from taking a veiled shot at Walz by whining that he was praised.
Meanwhile, the MRC’s meltdown raged on:
‘That’s Margaret Thatcher, Dude!’ CNN Analyst Elliot Williams Goes Gaga For Kamala
Tapper: Kamala Delivered the Best Speech By Anyone Ever of All Time (Fondacaro is lying, as he does; Tapper said no such thing)
‘All Kinds of Surprises!’ CNN Hosts Enthralled By ‘Best-Produced’ DNC
‘Everything We’ve Been Waiting For’: Colbert Hails Harris Speech
ABC: ‘Moderate’ Kamala Sounded Like Reagan With ‘Morning in America’ DNC Speech
‘Aura of a Prosecutor’; NBC Hails ‘Moderate’ Kamala Harris’s ‘Impassioned’ DNC Speech
Morning Joe: ‘Patriotism Fully Reclaimed’ As DNC ‘Flags Got Bigger’
Politico Aids Post-Convention Kamala Push By Floating ‘Movement’ Label
‘Sound of History’; CBS Swoons Kamala’s DNC Speech Was ‘Feat of Political Athleticism’
PBS DNC Silliness: Harris Makes Dems ‘Feel Seen,’ ‘Trump Derangement’ Not Real Diagnosis!
PBS Hails DNC’s ‘Patriotism’ Versus RNC’s ‘Weighted Blanket’
Geoffrey Dickens concluded with a self-congratulatory roundup:
There was as an overload of absurd, obnoxious and over-top outbursts from leftist journalists during their coverage of the Democratic National Convention. The NewsBusters team worked literally day and night to track them down.
[…]
The following are the worst outbursts from leftist journalists during the Democratic National Convention:
Dickens offered no evidence that any “journalist” he quoted was a “leftist.” He certainly never labels any Fox News reporters as right-wing even though they clearly are.